From: Grant Hutchinson (grant_at_splorp.com)
Date: Sat Sep 20 2003 - 14:28:20 PDT
In a previous message, Woo Lee typed vigorously:
>> If only the 'LC110' got into production.
>
>IIRC internal Apple code number for a 'palm-sized' Newt. It's talked about
>in 'Why Apple Killed the Newton'.pkg(Newtonbook) from PenComputing .com/mag.
Here's the text related to the Newton LC from that article. The Newton
Book version is available on UNNA:
http://www.unna.org/unna/books/Newton/killedNewton.pkg
g.
-------------------
The fabled Newton LC
One of the most heartbreaking mistakes Apple made was not building a
small shirt pocket-size device that would sell for under US$400. This
form factor, combined with low pricing, has proven to be wildly
successful for 3Com/Palm Computing and their best-selling PalmPilot
platform. Original Newton Group leader Steve Capps told me some of his
team originally wanted to build a Pilot-size Newton but the technology to
do so wasn"t there in 1991. He feels that Newton would have benefited
from getting smaller instead of larger, as it ultimately did with the
MP2000/2100 and eMate 300 machines.
"We should have believed in our own thinking," Capps observed. "Palm
didn"t make the same mistakes and they deserve their success." John
Sculley also confirmed that "such products were always in the plan."
(Several years later, Apple repeated the mistake when a palm-size US$450
StrongARM-based Newton was killed in favor of the eMate.)
I recently stumbled on an interesting piece of supporting evidence. While
rummaging through some Newton accessories at a used Apple store, I found
an Apple-branded leather case in which the sewn-in identity strip read
"MessagePad 110 / LC."
"There absolutely were plans for an LC product to be released in 1995,"
said Bastiens. "We had a complete design, developed with LSI Logic and
ARM, for a one-chip-Newton. It was a miniaturized MessagePad, like a
PalmPilot."
The Newton LC would have changed everything. "We were too nice to Apple,"
said Blickenstorfer, "too willing to put up with their veil of secrecy,
too willing to take 'no comment' for an answer. Perhaps we could have
convinced them the LC was definitely the way to go. Apple could have
shown us the LC a year before Palm asked us what we thought of the Pilot
prototype."
......................................................................
Grant Hutchinson } Interface Considerations & Toys
Weblog } www.splorp.com
Newton } www.newted.org
Design } www.veer.com
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